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CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, Copy editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Charge filed in 1975 killing

• Officials charge victim's neighbor in teenager's death

By Amy Daybert
Enterprise editor

On Valentines Day, 1975, 16-year-old Diana Peterson was stabbed to death in her Shoreline-area backyard.

Now, almost 33 years later, police believe they've found her killer.

The King County Prosecutor's Office on Dec. 20 filed a charge of murder in the first degree against a Seattle man, James Eric Groth, now 49, who is accused in the stabbing. Groth is being held in the King County Jail on $1 million bail pending arraignment on Jan. 9 in King County Superior Court.

Court documents indicate that Groth, who was also 16 at the time, lived next door to Peterson on Northwest 192nd Street. Police say Groth was infatuated with her and was jealous of the fact Peterson was dating an older boy and would routinely sneak out of her home at night to visit him.

According to the case summary, Groth was watching television with Peterson and her female friend on the evening of Feb. 14, 1975. Peterson was given permission to leave her house for one hour at 9:30 p.m. Groth stayed behind to wait for Peterson's return.

Upon her arrival home, Peterson's mother heard her daughter "give out two short screams from the backyard" and saw Peterson either wrestling or struggling with another person. Documents indicate the mother believed Peterson was only being playful, called out her daughter's name five times from a sliding glass door and received no answer. When Peterson was not in her room at 12:20 a.m. on Feb. 15, she assumed her daughter had snuck out of the house again.

Peterson was found by her father at 6 a.m. laying face up below rockery in the backyard. The location of her body was not visible from her mother's viewpoint at the house, according to court documents.

Groth was a suspect in 1975 but at the time denied knowing anything about Peterson's death. He failed a polygraph test on Feb. 18, 1975, and in a second statement told police he found Peterson stabbed to death in her backyard, but did not tell anyone because he believed he would be accused of a crime. He was not charged at the time due to insufficient evidence and the case eventually went cold.

A deputy prosecutor from the Cold Case Unit of the King County Prosecutor's Office recently began working with detectives in the King County Sheriffs Office in an effort to develop the case for prosecution. On May 19, 2006, Groth again failed a polygraph test and according to documents, "nodded affirmatively when asked if he had information about the homicide that he would like to share." Groth did not deny committing the crime in a two-hour interview on Dec. 18, according to court papers.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg praised the work of the King County Prosecutor's Cold Case Unit and detectives in the Sheriffs Office in a Dec. 20 press release.

"There is a huge value to taking a fresh look at unsolved cases from the past," Satterberg said. "The concept of justice never gets old."

"Our Cold Case Unit can bring a tremendous sense of relief to the families of victims in unresolved murder cases," he added, "And we think every unsolved case deserves another look."

If convicted as charged, Groth faces a minimum sentence of 20 years but a maximum of up to life in prison.

Groth has a history of violence, including convictions of assault in 1985 and 1996 as well as theft in 1998. In 2006, Groth was convicted of assault in the fourth degree in Florida. Against court orders, Groth returned to Washington.

He was already in the King County Jail on a domestic violence assault and violation of a no-contact order when he was booked on the murder charge.